State of emergency declared in flood-menaced China province

CHANGSHA, China, Aug 21 (AFP) -
A state of emergency was declared Wednesday in China's flood-menaced central
province of Hunan, where millions were under threat from water levels approaching
those last seen during disastrous floods in 1998, officials said.

"As of today, the entire province
is under a state of emergency due to the floods," said a Hunan provincial
government official in the provincial capital of Changsha, who gave his
name as Xie.

People were already being evacuated from
near Dongting Lake, which acts as a catchment for the historically flood-prone
Yangtze River, according to the International Red Cross in Beijing.

"(Officials) are very worried about
the situation. The state of emergency means more workers will be mobilised,
and some people will be moved from around the lake," said Red Cross
spokeswoman France Hurtubise.

Dongting and sections of the Yangtze
last overflowed in 1998, when more than 4,100 people were killed nationwide,
and there are fears that this summer -- which has already seen about 900
deaths -- could prove equally devastating.

In the wake of the 1998 disaster, China's
worst floods for more than 40 years, authorities ordered a massive programme
of anti-flood reinforcements around Dongting and the Yangtze.

The coming days are likely to test these
to their limits. The tail end of tropical storm Vongfong has brought heavy
rain to the region, although this has now abated, and officials said water
levels in Dongting were rising fast.

Hunan has already been badly affected
by flooding this month, with 108 people killed and 38 million affected,
according to provincial officials.

At the traditional danger spot of Chenglingji,
where the Yangtze exits the lake, waters were almost two metres (6.5 feet)
above danger marks Wednesday morning, an anti-flooding official in nearby
Yueyang told AFP.

"The level of the lake will continue
to rise 50 centimetres (1.6 feet) a day in the coming days," the official
said.

Levels were already just one metre (3.3
feet) below those seen in 1998, he said, although adding that matters would
improve now rain had eased off upstream.

Dongting's position means that if it
overfills, waters surging down the Yangtze could threaten neighbouring
Hubei province and its capital of Wuhan, which sits on the river.

The Xiangjiang River also empties into
the lake, meaning rising water levels could hit Changsha, Hunan's capital
city and other upstream towns in the densely-populated province of 65 million
people.

In total, more than 10 million people
and 667,000 hectares (1.67 million acres) of farmland are under threat,
the official China Daily newspaper said Tuesday.

"The combination of the arrival
of hot air and a tropical storm will cause a water surge which could hit
Changsha on the 23rd and 24th of August, directly threatening its people
and property," the state China News Service quoted the Hunan Daily
as warning.

The military was mobilised Wednesday
to help shore up the near-1,000 kilometres (600 miles) of embankments surrounding
Dongting and to help relief work.

"All army units must make tackling
floods their top priority," read an official order from provincial
military commanders posted on several Chinese Internet sites.

But Hunan province's Xie insisted that
despite the danger there were some "good signs" that flood-prevention
measures were holding up.

"With the experience we gained in
1996 and 1998, and with all that's been done in recent years to bolster
dykes and hydraulic equipment, there should not be any major problems,"
he said.

Floods struck early this summer, killing
hundreds in June before abating, but around 250 people have died this month,
including many buried alive in massive landslides in southwest China.

Eight people were killed when Vongfong
hit the southern province of Guangxi, the China News Service said Wednesday,
not specifying how they died.